


dearly departed

by m3owww



Series: dc [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Gen, Jason Todd is Dead, Or Is he?, but like... bittersweet, canon is optional and i chose to ignore it, this could have hurt a lot more I think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28900977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3owww/pseuds/m3owww
Summary: Cassandra Cain never got to meet Jason Todd.Her first memory of him is when she entered the Batcave for the first time, and the first thing that caught her eye was the torn and bloody suit in red and yellow and green displayed in a glass case.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Dick Grayson, Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Series: dc [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022224
Comments: 13
Kudos: 50





	dearly departed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PepperSoniRoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperSoniRoni/gifts), [BunkerBuilder37](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunkerBuilder37/gifts).



> for Pepper and Bunker because the original idea was Bunker's but then Pepper presented it to me to write with a few changes and this entire thing is a bit confusing so you both have a gift fic now :D
> 
> this fic is unbeta'ed and barely edited because I'm supposed to be judging a middle school debate practice round right now. whoops.

Rainy nights always made for slower patrols. No one, not even the most seasoned  Gothamites , wanted to be out in this sort of weather, criminals included.

And yet, the Bats were on patrol anyway. Just in case.

Tonight, Batgirl was patrolling with  Nightwing , who was currently in town. They’d made it through their entire patrol route in record time, only pausing a total of five times to stop some petty theft that took six minutes at most.

When they reach the Wayne Enterprises building,  Nightwing sits down on the concrete roof and Batgirl silently follows, lowering herself down next to him. Their legs dangle over the edge, water droplets splattering on their water-resistant (because nothing was ever completely waterproof) armor, sliding off the tips of their toes and falling down, down, down, until they hit the soaked pavement far, far below.

Suddenly,  Nightwing’s breath hitches, ever so slightly, and Batgirl’s head snaps up. She follows his gaze to the face of a building in the distance, just barely visible through the rain. It’s tall enough that it rises over the buildings around it, and someone has taken advantage of the flat surface, accessible if one climbed the fire escape on a shorter building up to the roof, to graffiti the Robin symbol, sunshine yellow on midnight black on red the same shade as blood.

As of right now, Tim is Robin, Batgirl knows. Tim Drake is the one who currently wears the costume, the one that holds the mantle.

But she also knows that the Robin that Nightwing is thinking about is not Tim Drake, because Nightwing has never held so much pain and hurt and regret on his shoulders when he thought about Tim.

Cassandra Cain never got to meet Jason Todd. 

Her first memory of him is when she entered the Batcave for the first time, and the first thing that caught her eye was the torn and bloody suit in red and yellow and green displayed in a glass case.

There had been a bronze plaque at the base of the case that she had not been able to read at the time. She’d slowly approached the case, eyes unable to look away from every tear, every dark stain, and run her fingers over the engraved letters on the plaque as if that could make her understand.

Now, she knew.  _ A Good Soldier _ , the plaque declared, as if all anyone had ever wanted was to be a soldier. Every single Robin was a child. Soldiers spent their time fighting. Cass had been fighting her entire life, and she longed, more than anything, to understand what it would be like to be normal.

Now, even though she could read, she didn’t understand why anyone would want to grow up fighting, their only goal to become a good soldier. She’d done that, and she hadn’t learned that there was more to life than just fight after fight, hit after hit, until she’d met Bruce.

Cassandra Cain never got to meet Jason Todd, but if she looked in the right places, she could still find ghosts of where he’d once been. She never got to meet the smiling blue-eyed boy that was in the photos Alfred had hidden away in the attic, where Bruce did not have to see.

_ Tell me about him _ , Batgirl signs. She doesn’t specify which  _ him _ she is talking about. She doesn’t need to. They both know.

Nightwing inhales slowly and deeply, and if his breath shakes a little, neither of them mentions it.

“Jason hated bullies,” He says finally. “He grew up in Crime Alley, so he had plenty of experience with them. He used to get in trouble at school a lot because he’d get into fights with the bullies, and I’m pretty sure it was only Bruce’s status that kept him from getting expelled.”

Nightwing’s lips quirk upwards in the tiniest of smiles, small and bittersweet. “Bruce picked him up after he tried to jack the  Batmobile’s tires. He would have succeeded, too, if Batman had arrived just a couple minutes later. When he got there, Jay had three tires off already and was working on the fourth. Jason said once when he was half-asleep that he hit Bruce with the iron and called him a ‘big boob’,” His laugh is sad and empty. “I don’t know if it’s true, but I can definitely see him doing it.”

Batgirl tries to imagine the grinning boy from the photos in the attic covered in the dirt and grime that the children of Crime Alley always have, hitting Batman with a tire iron and defiantly calling him a ‘big boob’, but all she can see is what he would have looked like in that torn and tattered suit, covered in blood and bruises and the light already gone from his eyes.

“He was a good kid, you know? Always tried to do the right thing. He tried so hard to live up to the Robin name,”  Nightwing’s voice cracks as his body grows distant, transported to memories of a past time even as he sits here, on a rooftop in the pouring rain. “I was angry at Bruce for giving Robin away, and I took it out on him. He- he didn’t deserve it. He was only doing his best. Robin was his hero, and I was such a terrible person, and now I’ll never get to make it up to him.”

The rain continues to pour, the sound roaring in Batgirl’s ears, as she stays silent and wonders what it would have been like, if the second Robin had lived. 

_ Who were you, Jason Todd?  _ She thinks, as if the souls of the departed could hear her.  _ Why are you a cautionary tale? _ Batgirl, Spoiler, and Robin all lived under the shadow of a dead boy, one that they’d never known. They saw the marks of his existence everywhere they went.  _ Would Bruce and Dick and Alfred be happy if you were here? Would it be better if you were alive? _

Not too far away, a single hand breaks through the muddy ground in front of a rectangular slab of rock, scraped raw and bloody from clawing away at wood as the rain continues to fall overhead.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on [tumblr](m3owww.tumblr.com)!


End file.
